WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Ways & Means Committee Ranking Member Richard Neal (D-MA) released the following statement after the Trump Administration announced the imposition of new duties on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico, and the European Union (EU), to take effect tomorrow:
“Today’s tariff announcement is a smoke screen for the Trump Administration’s capitulation to China.
“While the President gets tough with the EU, Canada, and Mexico by slapping tariffs on their steel and aluminum, it is China that has spent the last two decades pouring its state resources into building up massive capacity for producing steel and aluminum. The result has driven producers in the United States and other market-based economies out of business and American workers out of jobs. Despite this, the Trump Administration has decided to apply tariffs on imports from the market-based economies of Canada, Mexico, and the EU.
“And while the President justifies the tariffs on European, Canadian, and Mexican steel and aluminum as national security measures, the Trump Administration is in the process of cutting a deal with China premised on selling out U.S. national security concerns while addressing exactly zero aspects of China’s unfair trade in steel and aluminum.
“Recognizing the real source of the threats we face, I stand with our U.S. allies. The Administration’s failure to do the same risks seriously endangering both our economic and national security."
